Ulster University global research first could hold key to better understanding brain disorders

Dr KongFatt Wong-Lin

Dr KongFatt Wong-Lin

In a world-first, researchers at Ulster
University have found how to measure the speed and direction of visual signals
between parts of the brain, a major discovery that could help medical
professionals globally to better understand and treat brain disorders, such as
stroke and neurodegenerative diseases.

Computer science experts at Ulster University,
in partnership with Trinity College Dublin, used 3D computer modelling of the
brain to explore the speed and pathway that visual signals travel from the
optical lobe, the part of the brain that first interprets what we see, to the
frontal, parietal and temporal lobes, which process more complex cognition such
as decision-making.

This University research, published in The Journal of Neuroscience, one of the leading
journals in brain sciences, has the potential
to identify areas of the brain that are not functioning correctly, or at all, and
provide clinicians with crucial information regarding the most appropriate patient treatment.

Lead researcher, Dr
KongFatt Wong-Lin from Ulster University said: "This Ulster University research lays an important foundation for
better understanding of the human visual system. Due to the generality of the
method, it can be used to understand other sensory or cognitive processing. It also
provides us with a new, scientific method to identify areas of the brain that
are dysfunctional.

"As a potential clinical application, stroke sufferers
can have brain functional pathways that are effectively blocked or redirected, and
thereby changing their cognitive processing. This method may be used to
identify specific pathway alterations of individuals, and hence providing more precise
treatments, for example, through specific rehabilitation or neurofeedback.

"Importantly, this research offers insight into the
speed that visual signals travel from one part of the brain to the other. Cognitive
processing such as decision-making often requires time to integrate
information. Hence the method developed in this work, which identifies the
timing of signals within the brain, will be crucial for a better understanding
of such cognition.

"It could also potentially be used to understand how some
elderly people, seemingly for no reason can lose their balance, fall and injure
themselves. This may be attributed to slower or poorer integration of multiple types
of information over time. Thus, identifying the
signal timing and pathways will be useful for prescribing appropriate treatment
for elderly groups of people."

The
University research was carried out using computer models of study
participants' brain activity, which was recorded using state-of-the-art,
non-invasive brain imaging facilities at Trinity College Dublin. The Ulster
University researchers hope to extend this work by
investigating other cognitive processing and brain disorders using the recently
acquired magnetoencephalography (MEG) system at Ulster University, the only such
machine in Ireland.